President Park community comes together for a successful clean-up initiative on the rubble-filled open veld

After seeing their suburbs plagued by litter and illegal dumping, President Park community members came together for a clean-up initiative.

Eighty-five volunteers took to the streets on July 1 and picked up litter in the open veld on the corner of Fouché Drive and Brand Road. The volunteers managed to fill up 400 refuse bags of litter and 10 tipper trucks were filled with building rubble.

Children of the New Jerusalem Children’s Home and New Life Centre for Girls, staff of the Lory Park Zoo, and members of Red Bulls Karate, Life Central Church and Accolades also lent a helpful hand.

The organiser and member of the President Park Residents Association, Reshma Somaroo said a week ago she had met with community members to plan this clean-up.

“We tried to plan but were out of our depth and just threw stuff together and wished for the best. I then met with various people during the week whose support, advice and help made everything come together,” said Somaroo.

She thanked all the community members who were involved in the clean-up. “This was a game changer. We did it together and together we can do more. Watch this space for details for the next clean-up coming on July 15 in honour of Mandela Day.”

She added illegal dumping in President Park was a systemic problem. “We need more people to help with cleaning, more ideas and more hands-on deck. We need to get more strategic or else we will clean up today and it’s back to square one tomorrow.”

Somaroo said owners of vacant plots needed to be identified and pressure put on them to fence off their properties and clean up.

She also called for stringent measures to be taken against the perpetrators of illegal dumping. “We need surveillance to identify trucks dumping rubble. We need to be vigilant, and brutal and ensure they get fined again and again until they figure out that it’s more profitable to dump at the designated sites.”

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